When I first started practicing medicine, I didn’t see a lot of liver disease. When I did run across a case, it usually involved someone who was a heavy drinker. There really weren’t a lot of surprises.
Sadly, this is no longer true. We are seeing more and more cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In the past couple of decades, I’ve seen a huge uptick in this silent killer in my own practice. And people who don’t drink alcohol are very surprised when they get a fatty liver diagnosis.
NAFLD occurs when too much fat accumulates in the liver. Eventually, that fat buildup begins to affect liver function and damage the cells and tissue.
And here is a sobering statistic…